Less than three weeks before the Aug. 3 deadline to submit reopening plans for county and state approval, Princeton school district officials have unveiled preliminary plans that contemplate a hybrid model and that also provides options for full remote learning.
The preliminary school reopening plan, which has been posted on the school district website at www.princetonk12.org, calls for a hybrid model that combines in-person and remote learning for students, and that also allows for fully remote learning for students who choose that option.
On July 20, Gov. Phil Murphy announced that parents will be given the option to select an all-remote learning plan for their children if they do not want to send their youngsters for in-person education in the new academic year. Additional details regarding this option are expected to be forthcoming from the New Jersey Department of Education.
Public schools statewide were closed to in-person learning in mid-March by Murphy to limit the spread of COVID-19. The Princeton Public Schools, along with other school districts, switched to teaching remotely.
The reopening plan will likely be tweaked before the final version is sent to the Mercer County Executive Superintendent of Schools and the New Jersey Department of Education, Interim Superintendent of Schools Barry Galasso said at the Princeton school board’s July 14 meeting.
Galasso said the plan will be reviewed by the school board, staff, community groups, medical experts and pandemic team members before it is submitted for approval.
But some teachers have already expressed reservations about the reopening plan, claiming that it is not possible to teach young children from a social distance of six feet. Bringing children and teachers together in the classroom will likely lead to an increase in COVID-19 cases, the teachers told the school board.
Social distancing and space requirements are the driving force behind the move to a hybrid model of in-school and remote learning. Families that prefer fully remote learning can choose that option, according to the plan.
Acknowledging that the hybrid plan will inconvenience parents who hold full-time jobs, Galasso said the district is working with the YMCA and other community agencies to provide childcare options for parents.
“The bottom line is, the learning community, the staff and the students are our top priority. The plans will be fluid and our plan may have to change (in response to changes ordered by Murphy),” Galasso said.
“If we do have to pivot to remote learning, it will be different than in the spring,” he said.
The school district will ensure that each student has access to a laptop computer or tablet. The school board approved spending $2.5 million to buy laptop computers and tablets for each child at its July 1 meeting.
The school district is following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for schools reopening, including masks and face shields, plexiglass dividers, daily health assessments of students and staff, handwashing or sanitizing stations, and weekly deep cleaning of the schools.
Visitors will be limited and on an appointment-only basis. Isolation areas will be provided in each school, and district nurses are being training in contact tracing. All after-school activities and field trips have been canceled through January 2021.
Tents will be installed at all of the schools to provide outdoor classrooms and lunch facilities during September and October. A decision on high school sports is expected to be issued Sept. 15.
The plan calls for students in pre-kindergarten through first grade to attend school five days per week, with dismissal at 3 p.m. Physical distancing is possible, based on the current enrollment, according to the plan.
Students in grades 2-5 will be divided into two groups. One group will attend school in-person Monday and Tuesday, and learn remotely Wednesday through Friday. The other group will attend school in-person Thursday and Friday, and learn remotely Monday through Wednesday.
Dismissal time for students in grades 2-5 during in-person learning days is 1 p.m. Teachers will interact remotely with their students after 1 p.m.
Students in grades 6-12 also will be divided into two groups, and will attend school in-person on alternating weeks. Group A will attend classes in-person during A-Week, and Group B will attend classes in-person during B-Week” They will be in class Monday through Thursday, and learn remotely on Friday.
The school day will be full length – that is, no early dismissal. Officials are exploring options to allow middle school and high school students to eat lunch outdoors, and to determine how to enable social distancing while their masks are removed so they may eat lunch.
Special education students – from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade – who are in self-contained classrooms will attend school in-person, five days per week. They will be dismissed at 3 p.m.
But some teachers questioned the wisdom of putting students and teachers together in the classroom, and expressed those concerns to the school board at the July 14 meeting.
Ted Holsten, who teaches English as a Second Language (ESL) at the Littlebrook School, said the rate of spread of COVID-19 has been flattened in New Jersey, but it is not declining. There has been an increase in the number of deaths from COVID-19 in the last couple of weeks, he said.
Opening school for in-person learning and teaching will undoubtedly lead to increased transmission of COVID-19, Holsten said. He questioned whether it is possible to divide the population into low-risk and high-risk groups. People who are 30 or 40 or 50 years old have contracted COVID-19 and died, he said.
“This isn’t the flu. We don’t know how people will react. We won’t catch who is contagious and who isn’t contagious. We still have asymptomatic people,” Holsten said.
“Once there is a positive case (of COVID-19), we will have to shut down (the schools). Even with masks and social distancing, sharing the same classroom air will lead to transmission,” Holsten said. Experts believe that COVID-19 has an airborne transmission route.
About half of the teachers at the Littlebrook School have said they do not want to go back into the classroom, Holsten said. He suggested starting school online and teaching remotely, and wait to see the progress that is being made in developing vaccines and treatment for COVID-19.
Leigh Salle, who teaches kindergarten at the Littlebrook School, said she does not know how to teach kindergarten students from a distance of six feet. Murphy has recommended against close reading circles, so how does a teacher do that from six feet away, she questioned.
Play is vital to kindergarten children, Salle said. It is not something that they can do from six feet away by themselves. A socially distanced classroom is not possible, she said.